SIECUS and other organizations are calling for action against the suspension and following resignation of a high school teacher in Grandfield, OK who taught her students about the Laramie Project. Via USA Today:
The episode began in January, when Debra Taylor showed students at Grandfield High School The Laramie Project, a 2002 film based on the play of the same name, about the murder of Matthew Shepard. The students soon decided to film selected scenes themselves for an in-class project.Taylor, 50, knew the project was controversial with strong language, but got her principal's permission. A few weeks into it, the principal told her to stop production. After students protested, she held a 20-minute ceremony in a nearby park in which students wrote their thoughts and rolled them into helium balloons, then released them.
The next day, Taylor says, Superintendent Ed Turlington canceled the class. After she complained to a school board member, Turlington put her on paid leave and recommended that she be fired. The school board approved her resignation Friday.
This is outrageous. What's funny is that the district is saying that Taylor wasn't forced to resign because of the play. Attorney John Moyer (representing the district) says, "If someone is saying that adverse employment action is being taken against Ms. Taylor because of homosexuality, they're wrong." So why don't you shed light on exactly why Taylor was suspended the day after she held the mock funeral based on the play?
William Smith, SIECUS Vice President says: "What happens when the next teacher tries to talk about intolerance and hatred and murdering people for that, and they get harassed and forced to resign? This is bigger than just what's happening to Debra Taylor. It's about the perpetuation of hatred and injustice in our society. The same sort of hatred and discrimination that led to Shepard's death leads to this teacher's firing. We can't allow that to stand." (Emphasis mine)
SIECUS is asking folks to take action and call Superintendent Turlington at 580-479-5237 or send an email and tell him:
"Debra Taylor did not deserve this kind of treatment. Young people need dedicated teachers willing to confront issues of respect and acceptance for people of all sexual orientations. She should be commended for creating a safe space for all her students and should be reinstated immediately."
h/t to Max!
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I sent an e-mail. How frustrating...
thx for posting vanessa! the teacher, debbie, is really amazing and i'm sure she'll be excited to see this everywhere :)
Email Sent! Thanks for the heads up
"Education either functions as an instrument which is used to facilitate integration of the younger generation into the logic of the present system and bring about conformity or it becomes the practice of freedom, the means by which men and women deal critically and creatively with reality and discover how to participate in the transformation of their world."
Paulo Freire
Email sent! Thank you for posting this - education is critical. Also, for those Canadian readers, head's up for an upcoming education fight. Supposedly there is legislation going to be passed to 'protect parental rights' around what is taught in schools in Alberta. This will be a major hit to gay and lesbian rights in that province. As soon as I find out more details I'll make a post on it.
I sent a letter. This is exactly the type of drama that is so effective at engaging students to develop their critical thinking skills and to remember their empathy for other humans.
I can't send an email to that address! Maybe the person's mailbox is now full?
Email sent. :)
Tangential, I know, but I just have to say, thanks for not trashing Oklahoma in the process of writing about this and thanks to everyone who has commented so far for not trashing Oklahoma. Too many people take news like this as an opportunity to trash this state but it's the homophobes here that are the problem, not every Oklahoman. This could have just as easily happened in any other state.
That said, does anyone have a letter they can share? I'm horrible at coming up with exactly what to write because I get so emotional about it and just want to cuss a lot, which obviously wouldn't help.
I just copied and modified what was in the blog post:
"Subject: teaching about tolerance should be commended, not punished
Superintendent Turlington,
Young people need dedicated teachers willing to confront issues of respect and acceptance for people of all sexual orientations. Debra Taylor should be commended for creating a safe space for all her students and should be reinstated immediately. "
Thanks, Roja. I'll use that.
Here's what I sent:
I am a graduate student of drama at the University of California. I have read about the suspension and coerced resignation of teacher Debra Taylor. I am concerned that the school board does not have
the students' best interest at heart and is setting a dangerous precedent
with this action. I have seen first-hand the power that drama can have to
provoke important questions and instill critical thinking skills in young
people. The Laramie Project rather objectively examines a tragic crime
committed within our recent history, the murder of Matthew Shepard. The
reasons behind the crime are strongly connected to attitudes of hatred and
discrimination. It is a crime that I believe most Americans would not
like to see repeated. I certainly would not. The play was based on
interviews with the residents of Laramie, WY, and thus the dialogue
accurately reflects their colloquial speech patterns, strong language
included. People talking about a painful event often express themselves
with strong words. The message of the play is one that encourages respect
and acceptance of all of our fellow citizens and human beings, including
those of all sexual orientations. This is a valuable idea to be examined
by our young American students today. Debra Taylor should be commended
for engaging her students in such a project. Ms. Taylor was treated
unfairly by your school board. She should be reinstated immediately and
deserves an apology.
The Phelps clan will be there Friday, so are we: http://jmbzine.com/2009/03/16/protest-planned-for-protest-of-homophobia-by-the-grandfield-high-school-administration-and-westboro-baptist-church/
Please join us if you are in OK or north TX.
If I hadn't already promised my niece I would take her somewhere specific on Friday, I would do my best to be there.
She sounds like a great teacher - and this world sure needs more of them.
I am a teacher, and I received an official reprimand from my school because I brought a local gay man into my classroom to talk about intolerance. We talked about the power of the words "nigger" and "faggot" and I had a whole lesson plan panned out. Another teacher told the administration that I was telling the kids about gay sex. My reprimand was based on that I could not discuss "sexual themes" with my kids, and for some reason "homosexuality" automatically has to do with sex. It was really silly.
What? I watched the The Laramie Project when I was a junior at my almost all-white, public school in central Illinois. We discussed it in class and wrote a journal entry on it. Hell, my school was even given flack for having a racist word written in one of the boy's bathrooms, and we recently had controversy over "The Tenth Circle" because of "strong language" (though when I was a senior, we read "The Handmaid's Tale," so I guess it depends on what whiney kid or overprotective partent gets their hands on the book).
Anyway, sending an e-mail. This is such a stupid reason to get fired. The students are the ones who protested in the first place, no?
What exactly was she forced to resign for, if it was not for talking about homosexuality?
As I understand it, she wasn't forced to resign but was worried that if she didn't, she would be fired, which would then mean that she would have a very hard time finding another teaching job. She sent in a resignation letter independently.
It is still ridiculous that they accepted it, though.
I guess I don't understand the details of how this works, because why would she do that? They might not have even fired her, and doesn't resigning in the middle of the year look pretty bad too? Idealistically, I'd like to think that if she went to an interview at some more progressive private school and told them the reason she was fired, she'd be fine.
From the information included here, I don't understand why the teacher's class was canceled or why she was suspended. The teacher obtained permission from her principal to show the film. Later, when he asked her to stop teaching the lesson, it looks like she complied...and like any good teacher should do, in response to her students, she organized another activity about tolerance, but one that did not seem to discuss or talk about or mention the film at all. If anything, the principal was the one who was responsible for anything that parents may have seen as inappropriate: he was the one who gave her permission to teach the lesson in the first place. Why wasn't the principal taken to task and suspended? Oh, right, because so many administrators in education are self-serving hacks...
I was in OKC the past few days and this story was on the local news. But they said she resigned on her own because she believed her contract wouldn't be renewed.
I'm not wholly surprised. The public education system is designed to create drones, not empathetic, individual thinkers. So stuff that might stir up emotions is usually seen as a threat. And it sort of is, but I don't think that's a bad thing.
What's most disturbing about this is that the teacher was told it was ok and then said it's not. The administration never backs up good teachers and cowtow to the small minded public.
The Matthew Shepard story is one of the saddest and fucked up personal tragedies in our contemporary history. Someone being so brutalized just for being different. Kids need to know this stuff. Life is hard, people are cruel. If kids are willing to embrace compassion then for goodnesssakes, LET THEM! You might not get many chances to get through to them as they get older.
To Whom It May Concern:
I teach Social Justice 12, an elective course, outlining womens studies, LGBTQ studies (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgendered, Questioning), global issues, racism, aboriginal studies, genocide, environmental issues, and poverty education, in British Columbia, Canada. As part of my LGBTQ unit, I have included the Laramie Project as a film resource, and also plan on showing the recently released film, Milk (I currently have my superintendant and principal's permission).
Please take a look at this BC Integrated Resource Package for Social Justice 12, as well as the newly released 'Making Space: Teaching for Diversity and Social Justice Throughout the K-12 Curriculum'.
http://www.bced.gov.bc.ca/irp/program_delivery/ss.htm
I firmly believe that history is so important to learn about in the public school system, because we need to ensure that the horrors of the Holocaust will 'Never Again' happen.
The Pyramid of Hate is also a great resource: http://www.adl.org/education/courttv/pyramid_of_hate.pdf If you look at this pyramid with consideration of your districts' actions, your actiions are already half way up the pyramid of hate, with the finality being full-scale genocide against LGBTQ people. You have sailed past the first level of 'Prejudiced Attitude', and past the second level of 'Acts of Prejudice'. You are now firmly into the third level, 'Discrimination' (Employment Discrimination). What kind of modelling is your district providing your school and community?
Another great resource you may find helpful is the Teaching Tolerance website, which will send you hundreds of dollars of FREE tolerance-promoting resources:
http://www.tolerance.org/index.jsp
Debra Taylor did not deserve this kind of treatment. Young people need dedicated teachers willing to confront issues of respect and acceptance for people of all sexual orientations. She should be commended for creating a safe space for all her students and should be reinstated immediately.
Bring Debra Taylor back. The district that I work in supports and applauds my showing of 'The Laramie Project'; why would your district violate human rights to such a gross extent?
To Whom It May Concern:
I teach Social Justice 12, an elective course, outlining womens studies, LGBTQ studies (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgendered, Questioning), global issues, racism, aboriginal studies, genocide, environmental issues, and poverty education, in British Columbia, Canada. As part of my LGBTQ unit, I have included the Laramie Project as a film resource, and also plan on showing the recently released film, Milk (I currently have my superintendant and principal's permission).
Please take a look at this BC Integrated Resource Package for Social Justice 12, as well as the newly released 'Making Space: Teaching for Diversity and Social Justice Throughout the K-12 Curriculum'.
http://www.bced.gov.bc.ca/irp/program_delivery/ss.htm
I firmly believe that history is so important to learn about in the public school system, because we need to ensure that the horrors of the Holocaust will 'Never Again' happen.
The Pyramid of Hate is also a great resource: http://www.adl.org/education/courttv/pyramid_of_hate.pdf If you look at this pyramid with consideration of your districts' actions, your actiions are already half way up the pyramid of hate, with the finality being full-scale genocide against LGBTQ people. You have sailed past the first level of 'Prejudiced Attitude', and past the second level of 'Acts of Prejudice'. You are now firmly into the third level, 'Discrimination' (Employment Discrimination). What kind of modelling is your district providing your school and community?
Another great resource you may find helpful is the Teaching Tolerance website, which will send you hundreds of dollars of FREE tolerance-promoting resources:
http://www.tolerance.org/index.jsp
Debra Taylor did not deserve this kind of treatment. Young people need dedicated teachers willing to confront issues of respect and acceptance for people of all sexual orientations. She should be commended for creating a safe space for all her students and should be reinstated immediately.
Bring Debra Taylor back. The district that I work in supports and applauds my showing of 'The Laramie Project'; why would your district violate human rights to such a gross extent?
I sent the following email:
Debra Taylor is the kind of teacher to which all other teachers should aspire. You were lucky to have her. Correcting this travesty could be the bravest and most noble thing done in your entire career. When you're in your 90s, looking back over your life, are you going to be proud of the way you caved in to intolerant bigots?
Food for thought.